Fact and Fiction

The Messages We Hear

In early March of this year Barb and I settled in Southeast Arkansas. Folks ask why here? Weary of the question, I’ve begun responding with, “this is where I ran out of gas. In most cases this provides my new friend something to consider.

This is timber country and as a whole I’ve been somewhat content with our new abode. But there is one exception – broadcast stations. The dense pine forests do a fine job of attenuating electromagnetic energy.

During these months Barb has suffered two seizures and two heart attacks which, in turn, became 47 hospitalized days. Therefore, I’ve spent a host of hours by myself.

Television without cable or a satellite feed is impossible. And that is fine, considering how television programming has degraded. The same is somewhat true for radio – AM and FM. A wannabe DJ with a stack of records, CDs is in business. Or they can re-transmit some hotheaded know-it-all explaining what newsworthy individuals meant rather than what they said.

However, a long-wire antenna, commonly known as a Beverage, provided me with a choice – NPR which comes from the University of Louisiana campus in Monroe. Their news is thorough with an absence of personal opinions. But after a few days I went in search of another radio source and finally settled on a Christian station. My Christian Faith can always use reinforcement.

Much of this new station’s early morning programming centered on Christian Faith, but as the day wore on preachers turned to politics, re-transmitting sound bites that were probably taken out of context. During my youth I learned that Christianity spread messages of faith and love. How do these people in question justify their spewing of hate for those with whom they share a different opinion?

Perhaps I need not explain that I’ve tuned these folks out and returned to NPR.